Japanese firm to go into banana plantation in RP

During the Japanese occupation, the first three notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was constantly played because it stood for "V FOR Victory!" This was because in the Morse Code, three dots and one dash stood for the letter V. Later, someone invented the story that the real reason the first three notes stood for the letter V was because it was a Filipino banana that inspired Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The story was that someone gave Beethoven a Filipino lakatan. Beethoven had never seen a fruit that peeled so easily and perfectly, was bite-size and even angled to be eaten from hand to mouth. He bit the fruit, was enthralled by its taste and he asked, "What did you say the name of this fruit is?" "Banana," he was told. There and then the inspiration for the famous three notes that starts his Fifth Symphony flashed through his mind – "Ba-na-na-naa! Ba-na-na-naa!"

There are many stories about the banana. The latest we heard was about the teacher that asked a pupil to spell banana. The pupil answered, "Ba-na-na-na." The teacher told him, "Your problem is not spelling. It is just knowing when to stop."

We don’t know why later, the banana fell into such a low repute that third world countries were referred to as banana republics. And now the latest on bananas is that the Japanese firm Sumitomo Fruits Corp. is expanding its banana business in Mindanao by investing another billion pesos in the project.

This would bring their investment which started in December of 2004 to a total of P6.5 billion! The Philippines is one of the major banana exporters to Japan, Korea, New Zealand, the Middle East, Hong Kong and China.

When Sumitomo Fruits Corporation started its operation, they told the President that they were going to plant 4,000 hectares and spend P800 million to develop the infrastructure needed to support it. Now, they have decided to plant more than 4,000 hectares. They decided to expand it to 5,800 hectares and spend another billion for its infrastructure. We are indeed becoming a banana republic. But we believe that ultimately, the term banana republic will lose its bad connotation. When all is said and done, any project that brings foreign investments, jobs and income to the country will help the country achieve Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s plan of turning us into a first rate country in two decades.

We are glad that the Sumitomo Fruits Corporation’s banana project will take place in Mindanao. We hope it will give jobs to Christians and Muslims. It will only be a matter of time that the term "banana empire" loses its bad connotation. Any progressive empire cannot be a banana republic.